Digital Stream DHR-8203/5U HD-PVR Master thread - [Part Six]

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Any news yet on the End of March update and what is included?

You will be notified on this forum when the release is issued and what it includes. Unless there are any problems with the Beta release, it is on schedule for the 31st give or take a couple of days.
 
Thanks for that. On another matter, does this unit support portable external hard drives ie non- externally powered?
 
Thanks for that. On another matter, does this unit support portable external hard drives ie non- externally powered?

I have used a non-powered Verbatim 160 Gb drive in the past with no problems.

Now I use a 1 Tb powered WD drive simply because a 1 Tb non-powered drive is sooo expensive.:laugh:
 
NIGHTMARE :mad:

I just switched on my DS to watch the football, I thought it was a bit odd because the front panel was a bit dark in the lefthand corner (so it looked like ..TV1 HD), tried a cold reboot, still the same problem.

So I thought I'd check the media menu - it's completely wiped the hard disk. :mad::mad::mad:

So everything I'd recorded over the last few weeks has gone. GUTTED.

I thought maybe the box has done a factory default or something so I checked the schedule but everything is still there.

Tried going into the disk information screen but it's just a blank page so I'm guessing the HD has broken. Tried "repair disk" but nothing happens. Looks like it's well and truly knackered. :(

Is there anything else I can try?

EDIT: I thought I'd try switching on the logging to see if that reported anything. Put the DS into standby and out again and now the front panel is completely dark (there's still text there but it's very dim). Nothing in the "system message" page.
 
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NIGHTMARE :mad:

I just switched on my DS to watch the football, I thought it was a bit odd because the front panel was a bit dark in the lefthand corner (so it looked like ..TV1 HD), tried a cold reboot, still the same problem.

So I thought I'd check the media menu - it's completely wiped the hard disk. :mad::mad::mad:

So everything I'd recorded over the last few weeks has gone. GUTTED.

I thought maybe the box has done a factory default or something so I checked the schedule but everything is still there.

Tried going into the disk information screen but it's just a blank page so I'm guessing the HD has broken. Tried "repair disk" but nothing happens. Looks like it's well and truly knackered. :(

Is there anything else I can try?


:eek:

If you haven't already then the only thing I can think is the old

Power Off - 30 Seconds - Power On

Cheers
Pete
 
:eek:

If you haven't already then the only thing I can think is the old

Power Off - 30 Seconds - Power On

Cheers
Pete

yep, tried that (cold booted the DS for at least 30 seconds). Going to try it again. Really cheesed off that it's wiped everything. :(
 
After another cold boot the display was back to normal for a couple of seconds and then it went dim again, the top of the DS is really hot (it's only been powered up for about 15 minutes) so I wonder if the fan has failed and that's resulted in the box overheating and breaking the hard disk.

Funny in a way because I was only saying the other day how the fan isn't that noisy. :(
 
Just recorded a video of my DS cold booting...

Poorly DS

Loading.... oading .... ading ..... :(
 
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Just writing an email to JL now. This DS (a replacement) was dispatched on the 2nd of Feb (originally bought in January) - will they honour the 28 day refund policy?
 
Just writing an email to JL now. This DS (a replacement) was dispatched on the 2nd of Feb (originally bought in January) - will they honour the 28 day refund policy?
Get in touch with MIT, even if the hard drive has gone faulty it's likely to be the reading heads or controller, the recordings will still be on the storage platters in which case MIT maybe able to recover everything.
 
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Get in touch with MIT, even if the hard drive has gone faulty it's likely to be the reading heads or controller, the recordings will still be on the storage platters in which case MIT maybe able to recover everything.

I'll wait for a response from JL first, hopefully they'll offer me a refund. This is my second failed DS (and MIT weren't very helpful with the first one) so I think I'll go for a refund if possible and then maybe buy a Humax instead.

And I missed most of the football, just caught the last 10 minutes :mad:
 
I'll wait for a response from JL first, hopefully they'll offer me a refund. This is my second failed DS (and MIT weren't very helpful with the first one) so I think I'll go for a refund if possible and then maybe buy a Humax instead.

Shame, it's a good unit but there are always a few failures like this - very bad luck to get two bad ones. Can understand your decision though, I'd probably do the same in your shoes, especially if you originally paid £300 for the DS like I did, in which case there shouldn't be any extra to pay.
 
I'll wait for a response from JL first, hopefully they'll offer me a refund. :

As the item is faulty, you're entitled to a refund under the Sale Of Goods Act, which is completely separate from any extra 28-day return policy a store may have (these money-back policies are "in addition to your statutory rights" or some such wording).

Sometimes stores confuse these two things and try to refuse a return on a faulty item if it's after the 28 days. (although I'm sure a reputable store like JL won't give you any problem!) But in the case of a *faulty* item, the 28-day return period is irrelevant. You're not returning it as part of the store's "change your mind and return it" policy, you're returning it as a faulty item under the Sale Of Goods Act and you're perfectly entitled to your money back.
 
I'll wait for a response from JL first, hopefully they'll offer me a refund. This is my second failed DS (and MIT weren't very helpful with the first one) so I think I'll go for a refund if possible and then maybe buy a Humax instead.

And I missed most of the football, just caught the last 10 minutes :mad:

Can you make a point of enclosing a written report of what happened to your DHR which would be very helpful to MIT London when they receive it. Don't leave it to JL to do. :)
I think you have been very unlucky, but I am a true believer in giving manufacturers a chance and always go to the top to get satisfaction and often or not I have come out on top. I would be on the phone to MIT and explain that this is your second DHR, I would be very surprised if they were not interested in what has happened to your DHR.
 
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Strange one, anyone had a clock display that loses time ? Noticed that when in standby the clock was a good 30 minutes slow on the display, but when the DS was booted up the system clock was correct.

Then when put in standby again the clock had changed to the correct time.
 
Strange one, anyone had a clock display that loses time ? Noticed that when in standby the clock was a good 30 minutes slow on the display, but when the DS was booted up the system clock was correct.

Then when put in standby again the clock had changed to the correct time.

Hi

A couple of people have had units with what appears to be a faulty real time clock - same symptoms as you. They got their boxes swapped and all was well as far as I remember . . .

Cheers
Pete
 
NIGHTMARE :mad:

I just switched on my DS to watch the football, I thought it was a bit odd because the front panel was a bit dark in the lefthand corner (so it looked like ..TV1 HD), tried a cold reboot, still the same problem.

So I thought I'd check the media menu - it's completely wiped the hard disk. :mad::mad::mad:

So everything I'd recorded over the last few weeks has gone. GUTTED.

I thought maybe the box has done a factory default or something so I checked the schedule but everything is still there.

Tried going into the disk information screen but it's just a blank page so I'm guessing the HD has broken. Tried "repair disk" but nothing happens. Looks like it's well and truly knackered. :(

Is there anything else I can try?

EDIT: I thought I'd try switching on the logging to see if that reported anything. Put the DS into standby and out again and now the front panel is completely dark (there's still text there but it's very dim). Nothing in the "system message" page.

My digital stream often reboots well not a proper reboot we have a cam from top up for gold and espn sometimes when flicking between both channels there is a dark screen so you have to to another channel say bbc news to get either the gold or espn picture back but sometimes it can cause a sort of reboot.
 
After another cold boot the display was back to normal for a couple of seconds and then it went dim again, the top of the DS is really hot (it's only been powered up for about 15 minutes) so I wonder if the fan has failed and that's resulted in the box overheating and breaking the hard disk.

Funny in a way because I was only saying the other day how the fan isn't that noisy. :(

Might be worth trying to let the box fully cool down, then try booting it up. If you've got a big fan, set this to blow on the box. If you do get it to boot, try the repair disk. If you've had disk corruption and this happens to be in the Linux OS, then it definitely won't behave - maybe reapplying a full version update would help by replacing it, though would only work if the box stays up a few minutes. If you think it's trashed already, might be worth trying the FVU anyway as a Linux repair as you've nothing to lose?

Back in the old Digifusion PVR days, we used to attach a serial lead and read the output as the box booted. This would help diagnose if it was firmware corrupted (very rare, but boxes that experienced this problem, did it regularly) or a dodgy hard disk.

Good luck - it's really frustrating when your PVR dies.
 
Does anyone know what to expect in the next update? as when i got mine two weeks ago it had on the latest software.
 
Might be worth trying to let the box fully cool down, then try booting it up. If you've got a big fan, set this to blow on the box. If you do get it to boot, try the repair disk. If you've had disk corruption and this happens to be in the Linux OS, then it definitely won't behave - maybe reapplying a full version update would help by replacing it, though would only work if the box stays up a few minutes. If you think it's trashed already, might be worth trying the FVU anyway as a Linux repair as you've nothing to lose?

I left it an hour and then tried a boot, the display did the same thing - starts up normal then the front display gradually fades from the lefthandside until it's all dim.

"Disk Information" just displays a blank screen, "Repair Disk" and "Format Disk" does nothing. If I press record then it returns an error ("nothing to record onto" or something like that).

I was hoping if I activated the "system logging" option it would show the bootup sequence and maybe even say what was wrong with the disk but it doesn't say anything in the messages page, it's like the disk isn't even there. :(

I could try a factory default or even have a go at an FVU this evening.

I'm guessing the DS has overheated somehow (when I booted it up I noticed that the fan was working briefly during the boot sequence so I don't think it's due to the fan failing), so if this has damaged the motherboard or disk controller or whatever then it's not really worth trying to fix it.
 
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Just wondering about what to possibly get next - maybe the new Sony PVR is worth a try or should I just go for a Humax?
 
I left it an hour and then tried a boot, the display did the same thing - starts up normal then the front display gradually fades from the lefthandside until it's all dim.

..........

I could try a factory default or even have a go at an FVU this evening.

I'm guessing the DS has overheated somehow (when I booted it up I noticed that the fan was working briefly during the boot sequence so I don't think it's due to the fan failing), so if this has damaged the motherboard or disk controller or whatever then it's not really worth trying to fix it.

Definitely sounds like overheating. Faulty power supply? I think getting it as cool as you can, then try an FVU is worth a shot. If you can get the box to stay up a while, then cou could tranfer the programs to an external disk (if you have one).

In the meantime, certainly worth contacting MIT and see if they can help with swapping out the box and recovering the recordings in some way.

If it was me, I'd still go for another DS as it's a good unit (by the way, if it was my Grundig Freesat box that failed I definitely wouldn't do a like for like replacement). There's lots of happy DS users, just a small number that seem to be unlucky. You have to remember on the forums you always hear more from the unhappy people.
 
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